The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West

by Malcolm Nance, Rob Reiner Narrated by Peter Ganim

Overview

A provocative, comprehensive analysis of Vladimir Putin and Russia's master plan to destroy democracy in the age of Donald Trump.

In the greatest intelligence operation in the history of the world, Donald Trump was made President of the United States with the assistance of a foreign power. For the first time, The Plot to Destroy Democracy reveals the dramatic story of how blackmail, espionage, assassination, and psychological warfare were used by Vladimir Putin and his spy agencies to steal the 2016 U.S. election -- and attempted to bring about the fall of NATO, the European Union, and western democracy. It will show how Russia and its fifth column allies tried to flip the cornerstones of democracy in order to re-engineer the world political order that has kept most of the world free since 1945.

Career U.S. Intelligence officer Malcolm Nance will examine how Russia has used cyber warfare, political propaganda, and manipulation of our perception of reality -- and will do so again -- to weaponize American news, traditional media, social media, and the workings of the internet to attack and break apart democratic institutions from within, and what we can expect to come should we fail to stop their next attack.

Nance has utilized top secret Russian-sourced political and hybrid warfare strategy documents to demonstrate the master plan to undermine American institutions that has been in effect from the Cold War to the present day. Based on original research and countless interviews with espionage experts, Nance examines how Putin's recent hacking accomplished a crucial first step for destabilizing the West for Russia, and why Putin is just the man to do it.

Nance exposes how Russia has supported the campaigns of right-wing extremists throughout both the U.S. and Europe to leverage an axis of autocracy, and how Putin's agencies have worked since 2010 to bring fringe candidate Donald Trump into elections.

Revelatory, insightful, and shocking, The Plot To Destroy Democracy puts a professional spy lens on Putin's plot and unravels it play-by-play. In the end, he provides a better understanding of why Putin's efforts are a serious threat to our national security and global alliances -- in much more than one election -- and a blistering indictment of Putin's puppet, President Donald J. Trump.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Nance traces the revival of Russian enmity to Putin's second term as president, when he turned his KGB training to good use in weakening his American opponents by exploiting their divisions-exactly what those active measures are supposed to do... A convincing...cry that treason is afoot."—Kirkus Reviews

"The early chapters are easy going; the writing gets denser as Russians pop up faster than creatures in a Whack-a-Mole game, but even as this plot gets more intricate (and, yes, sometimes it does read like a political thriller), readers will be turning pages quickly, feeling both anxiety and betrayal. When, in the final pages, Nance lays out how he believes Donald Trump was recruited by Russian intelligence through the time-tried operation known as MICE (money, ideology, coercion, and ego), even supporters of the president will have something to think about. For those who are not supporters, Nance offers suggestions designed to counter the threat."—Booklist

Booklist

The early chapters are easy going; the writing gets denser as Russians pop up faster than creatures in a Whack-a-Mole game, but even as this plot gets more intricate (and, yes, sometimes it does read like a political thriller), readers will be turning pages quickly, feeling both anxiety and betrayal.”

Kirkus Reviews

2018-05-06
Did Donald Trump meet with the Russians before the election? By this account, almost certainly—and "virtually all of Trump's senior staff and family had numerous contacts with Russia that were nothing short of suspicious."It's a remarkable bit of spinning that has allowed right-leaning media to portray Russia, the longtime rival and even enemy of the United States, as our friend. By intelligence officer and counterterrorism analyst Nance's (Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe, 2016, etc.) account, the victor in Trump's electoral win was Vladimir Putin, who "won with the aid of Americans who had turned on their own values." In this, everyone is implicated, from the putatively liberal media and its obsession with Clinton's emails to pro-Trump voters who cast their ballots for him despite their candidate's "slavish devotion to Putin." It's a story that isn't going away, despite what the president might wish. Certainly, Nance writes, the intelligence community is keeping its eye on the prize, and for those in the administration who urge that it's all just misperception and accident, Nance counters, "coincidence takes a lot of planning." The author argues that much of that planning originated inside the Kremlin, but much also came from the desk of Steve Bannon, a key actor in forging a vanguard for a new kind of pro-Moscow conservative movement in America. In a narrative dense with "active measures" and "Kompromat," Nance traces the revival of Russian enmity to Putin's second term as president, when he turned his KGB training to good use in weakening his American opponents by exploiting their divisions—exactly what those active measures are supposed to do. The author wraps up his case with a provocative declaration that will occasion divisions all on its own: "Trump has definitely convinced me that he transitioned from an unwitting asset of Vladimir Putin to a willing asset working in league with the Russian Federation." A convincing and alarming—and perhaps alarmist—cry that treason is afoot.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173552839
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	06/26/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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